It is slowly dawning on some Democrats that their uncritical embrace of identity politics and mindless slogans like “defund the police” cost them in this election. Mark Lilla has been trying to warn Democrats about this since Trump won four years ago, though it resulted in Lilla (a committed liberal Democrat) being called a “white supremacist” by several of his Columbia University faculty colleagues. His most recent piece, “When Will My Fellow Liberals Learn?,” repeats the call for sobriety:
Democrats have had four years to ponder their defeat as America crumbled around them. Now that hopes of a Democratic landslide have been dashed and defeat is within the realm of possibility, the question remains as to whether they have drawn the right lessons from their electoral performance. The signs are decidedly mixed. . .
The bad news is that the cultural Left is even more focused on identity than it was in 2016. In part, this is due to the Trump experience. . [O]ver the last summer, other events revealed just how large the gap has grown between the ambition and tactics of political Democrats and those of the cultural Left. Here I am thinking of elites whose power base is in universities, the media, Hollywood, the publishing and advertising industries, the art world, and philanthropic institutions. It also includes young activists whose notion of political engagement is identity-based, confrontational, and social-media driven.
Lilla goes on from here to chide the 1619 Project, among other things. But for a more direct dressing down of how political correctness is strangling Democrats, check out Bill Maher’s eight-minute signoff monologue from his HBO episode last Friday. Look past his Trump hatred and snide comments about Republicans (remember that Maher is basically a socialist), and take in what he says about the left especially toward the end (note: strong language warning, as usual with Maher):
So, to the question, can Democrats shake this off? I’m guessing the answer is going to be a big No:
What exactly is an “anti-racist” librarian, anyway?
Chaser: It seems one of the Democratic Senate candidates in Georgia is determined to throw the runoff election to the GOP:
Chaser 2: “Why Young White Men Are Abandoning the Democrats.”
A shock poll by Reuters/Ipsos reveals that the Democrats are shedding millennial votes, with support dropping by nine percentage points since 2016. This shift is most pronounced among white millennial men, who now favour Republicans over Democrats by 11 percentage points. In 2016, Democrats led Republicans in this group by 12 percentage points. There has been a staggering swing of 23 percentage points in just two years.
And here’s a neat little piece of data that no one is mentioning in the endless prattle about “diversity”:
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